The best love stories can stand the test of time. Such a theme permeates virtually every genre of film. Comedic examples like Woman of the Year and Bridget Jones’ Diary and silent classics City Lights and Broken Blossoms could easily be on this list. Tearjerkers Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, Random Harvest and Waterloo Bridge are every bit as good as Love Story. Dramas like A Place in the Sun, The Apartment and Now Voyager are in the running. Literary pieces like Romeo and Juliet (1968) and its musical version, West Side Story are legendary. Theatrical plays Picnic, Splendor in the Grass and some odd pairings in Wall-E and Harold and Maude are memorable. Even Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde are immersed in romance.
In chronological order:
SUNRISE-A simple tale of two lost souls and perhaps the greatest silent film ever.
GONE WITH THE WIND-Scarlett and Rhett tower over most screen couples even Dr. Zhivago’s Yuri and Lara and Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff and Cathy.
CASABLANCA-Impossible love and sacrifice foreshadow Roman Holiday.
THE AFRICAN QUEEN-Two soon-to-be-lovers struggle to survive the elements. Sounds like Titanic.
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER-A remake of a classic Love Affair was, itself remade a couple times but most memorably in Sleepless in Seattle.
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S-Vintage urban love in New York would presage Annie Hall and When Harry Met Sally.
LOVE STORY-“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Literary adaptations like The Bridges of Madison County followed this formula with “This certainty comes but once in a lifetime.”
THE WAY WE WERE- Popular love stories like An Officer and Gentleman don’t get much better than this.
GHOST-A spiritual bond that survives even in death as evidenced in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Destiny.
THE NOTEBOOK-The emotions transcend the mind as in A Beautiful Mind and other films with a twist.
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